Fun with idioms

So I was chatting with one of my German friends, and sometimes you don't even realize what you're saying is an idiom until you try and translate it. I was trying to say I couldn't sleep lately because I had "so much on my mind". Well, Germans don't really have a concept of "mind". Brain, head, thoughts, yeah, no mind. So I tried to translate it "wortlich" (literally) and completely failed. "auf Englisch" he said. "Ah... zuviel in die Öhren"... (too much in the ears) :-)